Horigome, who received his first gold medal within the males’s road skateboarding competitors on the Tokyo Olympics three years in the past with 4 high-scoring methods, is main the best way for Japan’s elite male skate boarders to innovate.
He and his friends stand out by creating distinctive strategies that mix a number of types. Many of those methods are so troublesome that opponents can’t copy them.
For instance, Japanese skater Sora Shirai’s “Taxi Cane” at a current Olympic qualifier mixed two complicated strategies: the “Knight” and the “Cane”. The judges gave it a rating of 97.07, which was the very best rating for ability in such an occasion on the time.
Shirai begins the method with a troublesome transfer – using backwards with the identical foot place as ahead.
He crouched down and ready to fly into the air.
After rotating your shoulders…
…He began spinning counterclockwise.
Then he landed face-back on the railing, the results of muscle reminiscence and years of coaching.
Right here, he performs the “caballerial,” a 360-degree spin invented by American skateboarder Steve Caballero.
Better of all, when he slid down, there have been railings between the wheels and a part of the board hung off the aspect, all with out dropping steadiness.
After finishing his slide, he rotates 180 levels once more, utilizing his arms to information his physique.
He lands easily, a element that can enhance his rating. On this approach he accomplished “Sugar Cane”. It is all accomplished in three seconds.
“There have been 1,000,000 issues that might go mistaken right here,” however skilled skateboard referee Jason Rothmeyer stated the execution was about pretty much as good as one would anticipate.
Supply: World Skating Video
It is exhausting to place your finger on why Japanese skate boarders have dominated the skilled skateboarding scene for the previous six years or so, or why they’re so good at methods. The Japanese staff received gold medals in males’s and ladies’s road skateboarding in Tokyo.
“It is just like the well-known definition of porn: it whenever you see it,” Jonathan Russell Clark, writer of a 2022 historical past of the game, stated of Japan’s technical prowess Shi stated.
“You possibly can inform they’re doing one thing that different skaters aren’t doing, even if you cannot clarify it and do not know the technical particulars,” he stated.
Japan’s feminine skaters confirmed comparable strengths to their male counterparts within the Olympic qualifying rounds: They scored excessive in method however had been much less constant in operating. However ladies are much less vulnerable to the rule modifications as a result of they carry out higher than their opponents in each elements of the sport.
However scoring guidelines launched after the Tokyo Olympics could curb that dominance – and their skill to win medals in road skate occasions.
If the boys’s “road” competitors on the Tokyo Olympics had been scored below the brand new Paris format, second-place finisher Kelvin Hoeffler of Brazil would win the gold medal.
Horigome might solely accept the bronze medal.
Word: If the brand new scoring system is used, the full rating will probably be decrease as a result of on the Tokyo Olympics, the full rating is the sum of 4 scores – the very best 4 factors and 5 strikes within the two rounds. However within the new scoring system, the full rating is barely the sum of three gadgets – the very best run rating and the 2 greatest stunt scores.
The road occasion consists of two 45-second runs and 5 separate impediment course methods. The methods are scored primarily based on a skater’s two greatest particular person methods, and risk-taking and innovation typically repay.
To do effectively within the operating portion, skaters should constantly carry out a lot of strikes—not essentially troublesome ones.
On the Tokyo Olympics, if an athlete performs effectively in impartial expertise however scores comparatively poorly in operating, each operating scores will probably be routinely deleted. That is the case with Horigome.
However in Paris, one of many runs will rely towards the skater’s rating anyway.
World Skating, the worldwide physique that units Olympic skateboarding guidelines, modified the format for the Paris Video games after convening a committee to research the Tokyo outcomes. Luca Basilico, director of skateboarding at World Skate, stated the final feeling was that the format didn’t adequately replicate the complete breadth and variety of the game.
Ian Michna, writer of skate journal Jenkem, stated he welcomed the brand new format.
“Working can present a skater’s stability, skating type and offer you a broader sense of their skills,” he stated.
However that might pose a problem for Japan, as a assessment of outcomes information by The New York Occasions reveals that Japan’s efficiency in current Olympic qualifying tournaments has not been notably constant.
The Occasions evaluation discovered that even when Japanese skaters achieved their greatest particular person strikes, their operating efficiency nonetheless lagged behind prime opponents, particularly skaters from Brazil and the US.
Supply: World Skating
Word: Proven are the very best operating and ability scores of athletes competing within the Paris Olympics. Solely scores from the Paris Olympic qualifying finals are included.
American and Brazilian male road skaters are typically stronger at operating than their Japanese counterparts as a result of they carry out extra methods fluidly and repeatedly whereas crossing obstacles.
In distinction, Japanese skaters typically begin and finish their operating sequences with extremely technical methods that impress followers but in addition threat hurting their general outcomes.
This was an instance from the post-Olympic video games held in Rome two years in the past.
Horizo solely managed seven strikes throughout his run, and failed to finish his hardest transfer.
However American skater Nyjah Huston accomplished greater than 10 methods on numerous obstacles. Among the methods are comparatively easy, however the general rating is excessive.
The change in format could not have an effect on Japan’s efficiency in Paris.
World skating consultant Basilico stated the change was “about representing skateboarding the best way we predict it ought to be represented” quite than focusing on particular athletes.
Liz Akama, a member of the Japanese ladies’s staff, stated she was not nervous concerning the rating change.
Akama stated high-scoring, impartial stunts are usually not her sturdy go well with. The change in format allowed her to focus extra on perfecting the abilities she already had, together with these she might use in operating.
“Despite the fact that the foundations have modified, everyone seems to be adapting,” she stated.
Working example: Horigome received the Olympic qualifiers in Budapest final month partly by exhibiting off a various nine-movement just like what Houston did in Rome in 2022.
Shirai and Japanese teammate Ginyu Onodera completed second and third.
Japanese skate boarders dominate the rostrum through the closing Olympic qualifying occasion in Budapest. From left to proper: Onodera Ginu, Horigo Yuuto, and Shirai Sora.
Attila Kisbenedek/AFP — Getty Photographs
A number of specialists in interviews predicted that Japan would do effectively in Paris, because the nation’s greatest road skaters proved their versatility sport after sport.
Horigome additionally received this yr’s Tampa Professional, a road occasion the place scoring is predicated fully on operating.
“I believe they are going to do extremely effectively once more they usually at all times will,” stated Kevin Harris, a Canadian former professional with deep ties to Japan’s skateboarding scene. “They’re producing the most effective skate boarders on the planet.”
